The transfer of digital control signals and data signals via a potential barrier is frequently necessary in electrical installations in order to electrically isolate different circuits, for example, a circuit which produces a control signal and a circuit which processes the control signal, from one another. To reduce the number of coupling points between such circuits, which are to be electrically isolated, and data lines, serial transfer methods are frequently used. Thus, by way of example, microcontrollers (μC) use interfaces of the RS-485 type or use SPI (Serial Parallel Interface) interfaces to communicate with circuit components that are to be actuated. In this context, it is desirable to transfer data at a high transfer rate and to isolate potentials between the microcontroller and the circuits that are to be actuated. In addition, the transfer method needs to be highly immune to interference.
For data transfer with electrical isolation between a transmitter circuit and a receiver circuit, it is known practice to use transformers, particularly planar transformers integrated on an IC, as described in Published German Patent Application 101 00 282 A1, for example, as data couplers. To transfer signals using such transformers, it is necessary to convert the signals into pulse trains that are suitable for transfer, and it is known practice, for example, to produce cyclic pulse trains from a binary control signal and to transfer them, as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,027,152, 4,748,419, 5,952,849 and 6,262,600, for example.
Planar transformers integrated in an integrated circuit, which are also called coreless transformers, are capable of transferring data at a speed of up to 1 Gbaud, where not just the high data transfer speed, but also the low power consumption with good immunity to interference make such transformers attractive as coupling modules in data transfer links.